MEMBER DIARY

Observations from the Cheap Seats

Gatekeepers Frank and Dodd, Stevens, Dingell and Unnamed GOP Senators

I turned the radio louder and louder. It can’t be true — but it was. In a brilliant stroke of comedic relief, Senator Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the Big 3 might get their desired bail-out, but they would have to present their business plans in early December to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd for their respective committees to consider. Are they serious? Reid and Pelosi are vesting leadership roles in analyzing the business plans of the U.S. auto industry to Elmer Fudd and Senator Pompadour. Puh-leeeeze. These are the very individuals whose staggering incompetence and greed permitted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to trigger a world economic crisis. All I can say is that if this is where Congressional heads are at now, this economic freefall is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Ted Stevens has lost his re-election bid. We will have to get by with one less Republican vote, but so be it. With that said, I am glad he’s gone — not glad that he’s replaced by a Democrat — but glad he’s gone. Ted Stevens is a convicted felon and, unfortunately, I don’t share views that his conviction will be overturned on appeal and, frankly, don’t care if it is. Ted Stevens represents the very spendthrift practices and largesse which a renewed GOP needs to be running from, not running to.

John Dingell needs to be returned to his committee chairmanship on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. While John Dingell’s political future has seldom been of interest to me as a conservative Michigander, his removal bodes problems for us all — because the person who wants to replace him is none other than Henry Waxman, D-CA. Waxman desires to hoist his radical, environmentalist agenda onto all of America. With a President Obama, there would be little to stop the adoption of a staunchly anti-business, anti-job, anti-growth agenda which would come from a Waxman-led committee. So, save John Dingell!! Who says I can’t be bi-partisan?!

To unnamed GOP senior senators who feel the desire to espouse their pale version of red-state conservatism in criticizing calls for a return to Reaganism, please be quiet. Let me offer that, perhaps, if you senators acted, led and legislated a little bit more like Reagan, or demonstrated the strength of his convictions, you would not be in the minority in the U.S. Senate. Oh, and by the way, Mr. or Ms. Unnamed Senator, Ronald Reagan successfully ran for President in the 1980s, not the 1970s.